Dubai: When news came that his employer would be terminating his services in February, Joel Gutierrez, an expatriate from the Philippines, was devastated. He was saddened by the fact that he had an unemployed wife and two children, ages 10 and 3, to support back home and an Dh80,000 loan in Dubai to pay.
But even with the prospect of being jobless after 16 years of working in UAE and having no money coming in, Joel didn’t lose hope that everything will turn for the better. “Although my budget is really tight, I still bought a ticket for the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) raffle. In fact, I bought four this month,” he recalled. It seemed like it was the only hope for Joel to get out of his “painful” situation. And he was right.
Joel, 43, has just been informed that he won a luxury Infiniti car on the first day of DSF, plus a Dh150,000 cash. “I had prayed so hard for this. Actually, I prayed for it every day, when I was out walking on the street, taking the Metro, or anywhere,” Gutierrez said.
The Filipino expatriate, who works as a salesman at a clothing shop in Dubai, opted to get the cash equivalent of the luxury car, so he is expecting to bring home a total of Dh300,000 cash, or nearly 4 million pesos. For him, the money would be enough to start a new life in the Philippines and pay off his personal loan in Dubai.
“This will now help me build a new and happy life for me and my family. I will use the money to invest in a grocery store back home.”
Joel credited his strong belief for the great fortune. He has been buying DSF raffle tickets for years now and it’s only when he was told he would be terminated from his job when luck came his way. “I would buy ten tickets in a year and it’s the first time I’ve won,” he said.
“When they told me I would be laid off, it was really painful. But that didn’t make me lose hope. I wish to thank Dubai and DSF for this unexpected fortune,” he added
Since its inception in 1996, DSF has been offering life-changing prizes, and the festival’s 22nd edition, which started on 26 December, is no different with daily raffle draws offering shoppers the opportunity to win incredible prizes.
The Infiniti Mega Raffle offers one lucky shopper the opportunity to drive home an Infiniti QX70 plus Dh150,000 in cash daily upon purchase of a raffle ticket for Dh200. In the daily Nissan Grand Raffle, customers have the chance to win one of eight Nissan models – Micra, Sunny, Sentra, Tiida Hatchback, X-Trail, Juke, Pathfinder and Patrol. Customers will receive a raffle coupon upon purchase of non-fuel products worth Dh20 at any EPPCO and ENOC petrol stations, as well as Zoom shops in Dubai.
